WOKC Local News – June 30, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Storing more water with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board expects to find one million acre feet of water storage north of Lake Okeechobee in the next few years. Dr. Zach Welsh says the chain of lakes could store more water. Now we’re moving into the hydrologic restoration where we’re trying to more closely mimic natural flows to the river. And the way we do that is through adding storage in those headwater lakes. The district continued to remove muck in the northwest marshes of Lake Okeechobee and last report approaching 300 acres. The state budget as proposed will include 40 million for the lower Kissimmee stormwater treatment area project in Okeechobee. The Hail Sain program saved by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The staff of FWC have proposed sunsetting the program in 2050. They have 10 available permits now, but only two are filled. The program has not been full since 2008. Taryn Wadley told the commission there are economic impacts from commercial fishing. There should be thousands of housings for Lake Okeechobee that would, I mean, there used to be 2,000. That alone is like over a million jobs in the commercial fishing industry. The program allows fishermen to use nets to catch game fish like bluegill and red sunfish, catfish and tilapia in the lake. They have to put back bass and crappie they catch. Okeechobee County Commissioners hopeful they’ll get a community development block grant to improve the Douglas Brown School basketball courts. They’d have funding for a waterless restroom. The grant application totals $446,000 plus. Okeechobee Commissioners will try and bring back Bassmaster for a fishing tournament next year. The county will pay about $75,000 total. They were last here in 2025. Two people killed in Western Martin County Saturday morning in a head-on collision. It happens on 609, three miles south of Martin Grade. A 31-year-old man from Stewart and a 63-year-old man from Indiantown were killed and died at the scene. A 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis colliding with a 2012 Jeep Patriot. Martin County is looking at ordinances to seize e-bikes and charge towing fees to parents. Lieutenant Dave Roscoe with the Sheriff’s Office says kids are driving recklessly, doing wheelies, trespassing, and disregarding traffic laws. He says they are using technology to try and stop these e-bike violations. As far as using drone footage to go out there trying to catch these kids out in the middle of the roadway, follow them, because a lot of times when we go to stop them, they’re on an e-bike. They can be in the middle of the roadway, be on the sidewalk, hit the woods, take off going, and there’s nowhere for us to go at that point. A gun incident on Northwest 18th Avenue in Basswood, a homeowner came home and found an unknown male with his residence fixing a door. Another resident tucked a pistol into her waistband. The victim thinks to intimidate him. There were no arrests made. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).